How to Protect Labels and Labeling from Weather, Smearing, Falling Off and Tearing

Labels provide important instructions or warnings. Labels that are damaged might not get their message across properly. Labels that fall off, have no message. Good labeling is critical for getting your message across loud and clear.

Take address labels for example. If you apply an address label to a package, the last thing you'll want is for is that label to fail in some way. If the address label falls off, tears, or smears because of rain or other adverse conditions, the package won't get there on time, if ever. Whether you are selling on Ebay or belong to a multinational corporation, you never want a customer to fail to receive a package.

How do you ensure the labels are secure on the package and protected from the elements?

There is a product I use for labels smaller than 4 x 6" that works very well. It is the Scotch 822-P clear label protection tape sheets.

This article serves as both a product review of the 822-P but also a lesson on keeping your labels legible.

To give you an idea of what is being reviewed and how you can protect your labels. I'll quick run through how to use these.

Step 1. Determine which label you want to protect. We want to protect the orange "SAMPLE" label I made up. Sorry the label don't look particularly formal but I didn't want to start up our Zebra printer printing system just for the sake of this article (people would stare at me like I'm crazy :-)

Step 2. Remove the label protection sheets from the package. Grasp the 7/8" white strip as shown.

Step 3. Make sure you are only holding one sheet (I sometimes grab two by mistake) and remove by pulling off in one direction across the pad.

Step 4. Position the sheet over the label you want to protect.

Step 5. Press down.

Step 6. Then remove the 7/8" wide strip from the label and press down.

If done properly the sheet will lay flat over the label.

Adhesive

These label protection sheets perform very well. The strength of the adhesive is without a doubt very strong. You can tell when you peel the protection sheet that adhesive gives some good resistance. When these protection sheets are covering a label, I have no doubt that the label is not falling off.

Thickness

Thickness is widely overlooked when using products meant to adhere to other products. Labels and tape come to mind. If you a buy a product that is too thin it tends to want to fold up easily and stick to itself. You may have noticed this with the transparent tape you use around the house for presents and various chores. You pull a 4 inch strip off, and it tends ball up or stick to anything except the object to which you are applying. The 822-P product has decent thickness that allows the sheets to hold there shape

The Look

The Scotch 822-P clear label protection sheets are packaged in a very portable package that measures 4 3/4" wide x 7 7/8" high.

The packages are very light at about 3 ounces each.

Each package contains 2 pads of label protection sheets. Each pad contains 25 sheets.

The actual label protection sheets measure 4 x 6 inches. Each sheet is a completely clear, no tint, transparent color with the exception of a 7/8" removable white strip that allows you to to pull it off of the padwithout the label sticking to your hand (more on this below)


Protecting the Labels

This product does a real nice job protecting the label. The thickness of the sheets provides ample 'armor' to protect the label from scratching.

The material resists water well and keeps the labels dry.

The other pleasant consequence of using the 822-P label protection sheets is that is keeps my label ink from smearing. We often use very glossy labels. When we print on them, the ink has an easy tendency to smear a bit. I wouldn't go so far as to say the ink runs, but it doesn't quite dry as quickly as we'd like. Applying these protection sheets helps to overcome this and keep the ink legible.

Label Remains Perfectly Visible

After applying the sheet, the label remains completely legible. Very clear. No problems seeing the label. The protection sheet is not a distraction at all.

Any Cons?

Cons? Not really. You do have to yank a bit to get the label protection sheet separated from the rest on the pad and removal can be noisy in a quiet environment. Similar to pulling off a strip of wide packaging tape, it is audible. The adhesive is such a high quality though, I think this resistance and noise should come as no surprise. That said, anyone of any strength can remove the sheets from this pad no problem. Once they are stuck to the label though, they are on there for good and that's a good thing!